Another chapter has been added to the history of the relations between the American China Development Company and the Government of the United States. It was stated in these columns some two months ago that, so far as the construction of the' Hankow-Canton railway was concerned, the American character of the enterprise had for some time past been purely nominal, and that within the lew weeks ing it had caused to bbe even that, the directorate of the American China Development Company having become Belgian both in name and in fact, To this statement exception was taken by Mr, Charles A. Whittier, the President of the who said in a letter published by us on the 25th March that there had been no change in the charter or status of the American China Develuy cat Company, which "remained and musi remain distinctly American." Mr. Whittior added that "the stock interest' which the Belgians fave acquired therein has no more effect upon the company's status than similar holding in the past in scores of other American corpora~ tions." To this the reply was made that of the 6,000 shares of the company, 4,000 are directly held for the controlling Belgian interests, and that of the remainder the only important block of the stock likely to remain in " distinctively American" hands consists of the 600 shares standing in the name of J. P. Morgan & Ca. It was further contended in our comments on Mr. Whittier's letter, that it was absurd to pretend that a foreign stockholding interest in railroads operated on American soil had a precisely comparable status to a similar interest in an American corporation chartered to construct 4 railroad in a foreign country, and claiming, as this corporation has already done, the intervention of the strong arm of the United States for the of its agents against mob violence in that country. Ib was further argued that the change of status of the American China Development Company, or at least of that phase of its enterprise represented by the construction of the Hankow-Canton railway, became a public question, because in ceasing to be distinctively American, and coming under the management and control of representatives of the King of Belgium, the obligations to protect it must be held to pass to the Government in whose head or in whose subjects is vested the title to a controlling majority of its stock.
It now appears in dispatches of an apparently authoritative character from Washington that the United States Government has concluded to recognise the Ameri-
This is to be gained by the frank re-ition on the part of our Government tions affecting the interests of the This deliverance was apparently elicited by tment of State by the Chinese Minister, whose certain questions submitted to the Depart-
efforts to ascertain or to fix the precise status of the Hankow-Canton railway are eid to have been assisted by a Mr. John Ferguson, who is variously described as "a special commissioner from China," and as "Grand Secretary of the Imperial Chines. Railway Administration of that country. One would like to have the comment of His Excellency Sheng on this latter title of Mr. Ferguson's, as also the views of his compatriots in Shanghai in regard to Mr. Ferguson's eminent fitness to conduct such negotiation. But, minor considerations apart, there stands out the reason assigned for the somewhat important decision reached by the Administration, namely, that China has feared for some time that Russia might acquire control of the Americin China Development Company through either Belgian or French capitalists, and "thus secure the proposed railway north from Canton and through the Yangtze Valley to Hankow."
As a matter of fact, this would appear to be what Russia has already done. Some six years ago, in commenting on the conclusion of the contract between the Chinese Government and a Belgian syndicate for the construction of " railroad line from Peking to Hankow, the English China Association said in " memorial to Lord Salisbury: "Though the hand which signs the contract may be the hand of Belgium, it appears beyond question that France and Russia are the real this iso has been, from the first, in powers behind the veil." The financing of
the hands of the Russo-Chinese Bank, and the comment of the British critics has' been proved to be entirely just. It is not claimed, apparently, that the Peking-Hankow syndicate control the southern extension of the line which, strictly speaking, extends from Wauohang, across the river from Hankow, to Canton. That financially ubiquitous monarch, the King of the Belgians, is the accepted head of the first, and as yot the only, enterprise of the American China Development Company; but why it should control company through his agency domed mre dial Ran than through that of the Northern Belgian mitch or too Tittle of Ins. Ferguson's argu-syndicate passes com} i Bither too
ment must have been given to the public; certainly what has been published tends to obscure, rather than to elucidate, the action of this Government. As bearing on the general subject, and specifically on the claim made by Mr. Whittier in his letter to us, that the Chinese Government accorded to the Belgian Company of the northern line a right sion should the American concessionaires fail of reversion in the Hankow-Canton goncesto cary out, the following quotation from the reply of the Chinese Office to way, the Belgian syndicate will be entrusted with the construction of that line. You added that you had heard that this promise was given subsequently to the settlement of the Belgian agreement, and you inquired whether such an arrangement had been made. We have the honour to inform you that neither telge ing err in twenty-nine nor the supplementary agreement in cissusss, contains any sash stipulation,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.